Ladies and Gentlemen, in light of the Van Gogh incident, please do not lend us your ear.

In '05 we were the Infinite Improbability Root Beer Saloon. (3:30 Amnesia)
This year the root beer will be colder, the absinthe -way- better, and with any luck we won't explode or plow through your camp.

If your camp or event could use a visit by a rolling, rumbling and wholly unstable steampunky absinthe and root beer engine, shoot us a note.

People asked us for Pan Galactics so we'd give them undistilled Green Devil absinthe with root beer in it. The playa dust sediment helped mask the bitterness and confusion your body feels when it's trying to simultaneously swallow and vomit. We'd try to warn 'em, but, if you ever wanted to know what it's like to suck the marrow from a corpse floating in a coffin filled with warm, root beer, we could offer that perspective.

I have solemnly vowed not to do that anymore. To quote Nigel Tufnel, "Too much fucking perspective." This year you'll get a strawberry panty dropper instead.

"The Red Baron is smart.. He never spends the whole night dancing and drinking root beer.. "-The WWI Flying Ace

LeChatNoir wrote:Please, please tell me that the steam traction engine on your webpage is your mode of transport for this magical thing. If we, upon The Contraption, see you we will come and visit.

I wish. If it was, I probably couldn't get a permit to operate it on the playa. I imagine the ruts would be brutal, but, there was an actual Case traction engine out there one year, wasn't there?

Ours will be a replica--or at least directly inspired by the one on the webpage--but I can say that the powerplant has pulled my jeep. Scale will depend on the size of the wheels we can acquire or build.

Looking forward to seeing The Contraption!

"The Red Baron is smart.. He never spends the whole night dancing and drinking root beer.. "-The WWI Flying Ace

ZaphodBurner wrote:I wish. If it was, I probably couldn't get a permit to operate it on the playa. I imagine the ruts would be brutal, but, there was an actual Case traction engine out there one year, wasn't there?

Kinetic Steam Works had theirs on the playa in 07 I think. She was pulling Neverwas Haul around and it was a beautiful sight. They had rubber plates on the steel wheels to not dig into the playa. It seemed to work well.

Ours will be a replica--or at least directly inspired by the one on the webpage--but I can say that the powerplant has pulled my jeep. Scale will depend on the size of the wheels we can acquire or build

I can't say I blame you. Just getting a steam engine to the playa would be an undertaking of monstrous proportions, not to mention the finicky task of keeping it running and serviced.

I found a place in the Missouri that has a bunch of large steel wheels, even some traction engine wheels, but shipping to Portland would be a booger and they're best to look at in person due to the nature of old rusty things. Seems like you could fab up some that looked pretty good, and probably incorporate high quality bearings easier as well. Please feel free to post your progress in the Contraption thread... if you want that is. I know folks would love to see what you're making.

I found a pair of 45" antique wood-spoke wagon wheels and we decided to make it a tricycle, with the two large wheels upfront and a trailing rear-wheel (like a tail-dragger airplane). So, it'll be the only steampunky wagon-wheeled tricycle in the 9 o'clock plaza... probably.

Hooked up a pair of 24v motor/gearbox/wheel assemblies where the rear wheel would go, minus steering, connected a 36v batteries and it sprung to life briefly, but now I'm looking for 12" sprockets with a 2" bore to drive the big wheels. That's kind of a custom deal but I have a lead. At least I'm now reasonably confident that the motors will produce enough torque to push it.

I'll post pictures. Right now it looks like an unpainted donkey cart but when I laid a piece of 14" dia PVC pipe on it, the neighbors all thought I was making a cannon.

Cheers! Getting excited...

=c

"The Red Baron is smart.. He never spends the whole night dancing and drinking root beer.. "-The WWI Flying Ace

In a strange twist of events, a bottle of uncolored absinthe was inadvertently dumped over a batch of strawberries, instead of the vodka intended for the concoction. The result is spectacular. Ask the Green Hour bartender for a sample.

The neighbors are no longer convinced I'm building a cannon, but the addition of compressed air and a vodka carousel have caused them no less alarm.

Aemma is alive and rumbles around the grass, powerful but a bit unruly. More specifically, she'll try to kill you. I managed to ground-loop her today. A bit like breaking in a horse. Time to lower the voltage...

[/img]

"The Red Baron is smart.. He never spends the whole night dancing and drinking root beer.. "-The WWI Flying Ace

thats bad ass I wish we had a license like that in cali or nv...relax I know what real absinthe is...I've been ordering jade, duplias and cladestine since I was a freshman in highschool...then in college I began researching...started brewing freshman year...then started an all out fermentation war zone of anything fermentable...upgraded to all grain in the second month...then had my steel 3 tier made...then junior year of college I researched and learned to distill...last summer I distilled for a winery and worked the vineyards...id mean to get ya wound up...I just run into a lot of amateur green devil folk...